Robert Downey Jr. And Tim Burton May Team Up For New Pinocchio From Pushing Daisies' Bryan Fuller

[Brendon Connelly]

I've recently read Bryan Fuller's screenplay Pinocchio, based upon the book by Carlo Collodi. It placed on the Black List last year and, thanks in part to the great source material, it read rather well.

Most of the story as you know it is in there - Geppetto carves a wooden son who puts himself in moral danger, there's a cricket guardian, there's even the huge whale... except, this time, it's a truly huge megadalon shark.

Seems that Tim Burton has also read and enjoyed the screenplay as, according to The Hollywood Reporter, he's closing in on a deal to direct the film and his plan, they say, is to cast Robert Downey Jr. as Geppetto.

I didn't see it before, but I've just re-read a handful of pages with Downey in mind and, by jiminy, it works. Good call, Burton.

Fuller's screenplay has reworked the story a fair bit, and created several new ideas and scenes. Some of them are actually pretty powerful, and many lend themselves pretty obviously to Burton's stylings.

For example, there's one moment, very near the end, in which Pinochhio is being expected to crawl into what essentially amounts to his grave and to lie there until he sprouts back into a tree. It's potentially quite nightmarish, in a may-I-sew-buttons-into-your-eyes way.

I promised you that, while it's very much a fairy tale (really: it drips with fairies) this is definitely not just a sweetness-and-light version of the story.

Burton and co. would have a long way to go in order to best the 1940 Disney Pinocchio, but the script, as it stands, is at least a good foundation. I'll certainly be keeping an eye on this.

[FilmBuffRich]

That's all well and good for Fuller, but I'm still wondering if we're ever going to see that PUSHING DAISIES comic or if that quietly died...

[Soph41190]

Do you still have a copy of this script Brendan? Have been looking for it for months! Really eager to have a read.

Sophie x